A 72-year-old British doctor has been imprisoned in Pakistan for ‘posing as a Muslim’ after two men pretending to be patients recorded him reading the Koran.

Masood Ahmad, a member of the Ahmadiyya community, was arrested in Lahore last month after the two men had ‘dragged him out by the neck’ and beaten him.

Mr Ahmad spent a majority of his life working as a doctor in London, but returned to Pakistan in 1982 to open a pharmacy.

According to Pakistani law, Ahmadis are non-Muslims and can be jailed for three years for ‘posing as a Muslim’ or ‘outraging Muslims’ feelings’.

Mr Ahmad’s brother say two men posing as patients questioned him about his faith and used mobile phones to secretly record him reading a verse from the Koran.

‘He said to him “you are like a father to me, please help me with some questions”,’ Nasir Ahmad said.

‘When my brother answered, they began beating him and dragged him outside by his neck.’

Masood Ahmad has had three unsuccessful bail hearings, but remains behind bars.
One hearing was picketed by scores chanting anti-Ahmadi slogans and his lawyer allegedly too frightened to attend the other two.

His son, one of seven children in Britain and Australia, said the family suspected someone was trying to steal his father’s dispensary.

‘I feel so angry because I can’t do anything from here,’said 39-year-old Abbas Ahmad, a cab driver in Glasgow. ‘It’s awful to know that people were plotting against someone you love.’

One of his accusers, religious teacher Muhammad Ihsan, say Ahmad had preached to them illegally.

The Ahmadi community has suffered from religious persecution for decades. Last year, 20 cases against Ahmadis alleged that they ‘posed as Muslims’, despite the group proclaiming Islam to be their faith.

One case saw a bank clerk arrested for wearing a ring with a Quranic verse and another an entire family was charged for writing a Muslim greeting on a wedding invitation.

‘We would not have a problem with them if they did not use the name of Islam and the symbols of Islam,’ said Tahir Ashrafi, head of the powerful Ulema Council of clerics.

‘We are against the killing of any innocent. Such attacks are not acceptable or allowed, but if they break the law, we have a right to go to the police,’ he said.

There are about half a million Ahmadis in Pakistan, their leaders say. Many only feel safe in Rabwa, a town they bought when Pakistan was created in 1947.

What the hell??? How do you beat a 72-year-old man? We’re praying for a safe and speedy release for Mr. Ahmad.